Abstract
Because rice feeds half of the world’s population, a secure global food supply depends on sustainable rice production. Here we test whether the co-cultivation of rice and fish into one “rice-fish system” (RFS; fish refers to aquatic animals in this article) could help sustain rice production. We examined intensive and traditional RFSs that have been widely practiced in China. We found that rice yields did not decrease when fish yield was below a threshold value in each intensive RFS. Below the thresholds, moreover, fish yields in intensive RFSs can be substantially higher than those in traditional RFS without reducing rice yield. Relative to rice monoculture, the use of fertilizer-nitrogen and pesticides decreased, and the farmers’ net income increased in RFSs. The results suggest that RFSs can help sustain rice production, and suggest that development of co-culture technologies (i.e. proper field configuration for fish and rice) is necessary to achieve the sustainability.
Highlights
Rice is the main component in the daily diets of about 3 billion people[1], many of whom live in developing areas and cannot afford high prices for rice[2]
Further analysis revealed that fish yield and refuge percentage were significantly higher in rice-fish system” (RFS) farms where rice yield had decreased relative to rice monoculture (RM) than in RFS farms where rice yields had not decreased relative to RM farms (P < 0.05, Fig. 1c,d)
Our results showed that fish yield continuously increased as the percentage of the field used as a refuge increased for each type of intensive RFSs (Fig. 2b, Supplementary Table 2)
Summary
Rice is the main component in the daily diets of about 3 billion people[1], many of whom live in developing areas and cannot afford high prices for rice[2]. The Ministry of Agriculture of the People’s Republic of China has been trying to help farmers improve traditional RFSs and develop intensive RFSs with high fish yields[12,13] in order to increase rice-field productivity and farmer income. Intensive RFSs, in contrast, are large-scale operations that use relatively high quantities of commercial “fish” feed and large fish refuges to achieve high fish yields and significant farmer profits[12,13]. This suggests two important and related questions regarding intensive RFSs. Are rice yields lower in intensive RFSs than in rice monoculture? We discuss the implications of our results for the development and management of intensive RFSs with the goal of sustaining rice farming in China and other countries
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